Shay 7 going on 16

This post is about my daughter, because as much as I love her. She's making me crazy right now. I love that she is way more social than I ever was. She loves her friends!! She is kind to people and cares about their feelings which is all good. But, lately the friend thing is driving me crazy. She loves to have friends over after school, which is fine too. The problem is is when they are over they just dont seem to listen to me, especially my daughter. They love to go upstairs and listen to music. Mainly High School Musical (the newest fad). Shay got in trouble everyday for a week for talking. So I told her that she couldnt play if I heard from her teacher that she wasnt doing the right thing. So she straightened that up and now only gets in trouble on Tuesdays. The day that she goes to dance and can't play with friends anyway. Hmmmm! I guess I should be happy that she's no dummy. Yesterday, I heard the music loud in my room and went to check on my daughter and her friends. She was lifting her leg on to the railing of our balcony. I did what every good mother does and screamed at her and asked her "What the heck are you doing?(yes Im kidding here) Instead of explaining why it was dangerous to put your leg over the balcony on the second floor. Derek says I treat her different then him and let her get away with more stuff. I think he's right. I want to tell him that if he were a little quieter about his naughtiness, he would get away with more stuff also. But I'm sure he'll figure this out all on his own someday. Help!

Things (or people) that make you go Hmmm

Last month my children had a half day. My daughter had been wanting to invite this friend over. I told her she could after she finished a few afternoon chores. The friend came home with her anyway. I was not to happy with this, but they told me that the friends mother wasnt home. I thought they were trying to pull one over on me, but let the friend stay anyway. After all she is a sweet little girl. I told my daughter she would still have to finish her chores with the friend. They did and it was fine. After they had played for about 3 hours. They got bored and started to do things that my daughter knows I don't like. Ride bikes through other peoples yards etc. So, time for the little friend to go home, right. When I told them this, they came back with the same song and dance about how the little girls parents arent home and either is the 11 year old sister that usually watches her after school. As I'm discussing this with them I get a phone call from the sister. My daughter and her friend are right. Theres nobody at the house and there wont be for a couple more hours. This frustrates me more, because a phone call from the parents would have been nice to let me know that I would be babysitting all afternoon. Anyway, things that make you go hmmmm.

Deceptively Delicious Tacos

I was suprised when my family went crazy and ate up these tacos. This recipe is from a cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld called Deceptively Delicious. She tries to hide some vegetables in all of her recipes. When I told Mark that I had put butternut squash in the taco meat. He joked about there just being a little bit of dog poop in the food. But he still ate every bit of his two tacos I gave him and so did each of my kids. I suggest everyone go and buy this book. It has a lot of other good recipes our family has enjoyed as well.
Tacos

Nonstick cooking Spray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1lb of lean ground sirloin or turkey
1(14 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes, with their juice
1/2 cup sweet potoato, carrot, or butternut squash puree
1/2 (1.2 oz) packet taco seasoning, with no msg
1 pkg of taco shells (18 shells)
1/2 cup of reduced fat mozzarella cheese or Cheddar cheese

Toppings
1/2 lb. of cherry tomatoes, stemmed and quartered
1/2 cup canned or frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup of lowfat sour cream
3 large leaves Romaine lettuce, thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 small avocado pitted, peeled, and sliced
1 small red pepper, stemmed, seeded, and finely sliced

1. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set it over med. heat. When the skillet is hot, add the oil. Add the meat breaking it up with a spoon. Brown for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally also.

2. Stir in tomatoes and their juice, vegetable puree and seasoning mix. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the meat is no longer pink and the mixture begins to thicken, 10 to 15 minutes longer.

3. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Fill the taco shells with the meat mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Stand the shells in a baking dish and bake until the cheese melts, 5 to 10 minutes. Add your favorite toppings.
Half the butternut squash or sweet potato and cook for 45 min. at 400 degrees. When cools put the inside and some water in a blender or food processor to puree.

Some things about Adam

Since about January, Adam has started to realize that theres a baby coming.

One of the funny things he does is climb up on my lap and hold my hands. I guess, because I can't use them to do anything and he can have my full attention. He also talks to my hands (which is interesting) He says things like "Hands what are you doing". At first, it was a little frustrating. Now I just play along. Whenever he asks what my hands are doing. I say "My hands are loving you". I've also started singing the Beatles song "I want to hold your hand".

I know a little cheesy, but it works for Adam.

He also started potty training. It's a good thing right? I tried one day to take him to the potty every hr. He wasn't into it. So, I was just going to give up and try again later. Because, by kid three I know it's all about when they want to do it. But, then he decided he wanted to try every once in awhile. So, I'm trying to be casual about it. He goes when ever he wants some chocolate.

He is a sweet natured kid though. He's my cuddler. He's excited, because next year he gets to go to preschool with his cousin Kaylee. She's his best friend.

We now have the Wii!

I just had to blog about this, because I'm so proud of Derek. He earned half of the money for this Wii. I told him that if he earned half of the money we would pay for the other half. Of course, I thought we were safe. I didnt think he was that serious about getting one. A few months ago, he painted all of our citrus trees, and picked as many grapefruit and tangerines as he could. Saved birthday and Christmas money. He's never saved $2 before so this one was big.

Shay's Valentines Party

Shay always has fun at her class parties. She loves school. Mostly friends at school. She has about 13 girls in her class. I think they pretty much all like each other. The teacher constantly has to remind them that this is school, not a play date.

The party is always fun, because of all the things the parents donate. They also come in to help out. I think there were about 10 parents there including me if not more.

The kids got to decorate a sugar cookie with frosting and all kinds of candy. My friend Nicole put together some relay races that the kids loved. Last, but not least they got to open their valentines.

Shay's Valentines Party

I obviously got this backwards.

Sick Kids YUCK!

Derek and Adam have been so sick this week. Mark and Derek didn't get to come to the family party. Derek had a fever from Fri-Sun. The boy barely moved from the couch for three days. Sunday afternoon I figured out (after talking to some people) that strep throat was being passed around in Derek's class. So Monday, I took Derek to the doctor. Sure enough he had strep.
What was super fun, is that we got to do the same scenario with Adam on Wed. Poor Adam though, he had strep along with an earache and partial bronchitis. No wonder the kid has been grumpy lately. He's a pretty good kid though, so I didn't realize how bad he was. Anyway, we are on the mend now. Yeah!

Family Party

Sunday Feb. 10th my sister-in-law Jackie had a family/baby shower for my other sister-in-law Monica (she's due with a baby boy 2 mos. after me) and I. I thought it was a really fun night. We ate dinner at Monicas and played 5 crazy games of UNO attack. We even received some gifts. Even though this will be the fourth kid for both of us.
Some gifts I received were: diapers, baby bath, lotion, and cute little onsie with hat, and a beautiful white blanket from my Aunt Janice.
After my Aunt Janice and family left that's when the craziness began. I forgot how competive my brothers Seth and Wade both are. I won't mention though that I did happen to win the game 3 out of 5 times. Oops, now did I mention that. I must be getting old or have too much blonde hair or something. I guess cheaters never prosper. J/K Anyway, thanks it was a fun night.

Sporting a muumuu

So I totally stold this picture from someone elses blog. But, I so could be sporting this muumuu lately. I have exactly one more month today till my baby is born. I'm really missing the gym and having a body that can do stuff again. (I am thankful to be able to have a baby though. Just not crazy about the body right now!

Here is a picture of my Grandpa and Grandma Hall on my wedding day July 1994.

Someone I'm thankful for

When I was at the rock musuem the boys thought I was a little nuts, because I was excited to look at the rocks. I wanted to tell them of all the things I learned in Geology. But why when you can pick out 3 rocks from the wheel barrow.
I think I was excited, because the whole experience reminded me of my Grandpa Hall. He worked for many years in the Bisbee mine. My grandpa always had, beautiful rocks displayed on his porch outside. This post only seems fitting, because this month is the 10th anniversary of my Grandpas death. My grandpa was a good example to me of Christ like love. After working so many years in the mine his hearing was pretty much gone. It was kind of annoying for many of my family members to repeat themselves. I could always tell even as a little kid that this hurt his feelings. He never tried to be rude back instead he was always kind. He always seemed to turn the other cheek. He always worked hard. I loved my grandpa and I miss him.

Derek's field trip

I decided to start a blog, because I spend so much time lurking at everyone elses. Hopefully, it will help me with some sort of a journal.
Yesterday, Derek had a field trip at the Rock Museum. I was of course his group leader. I had 3 boys this included him. I spent most of my time chasing them. At the end (after the boys filled out a 10 problem questionare)you could pick out 3 exciting rocks. Which looked like they could have come from our backyard. They were all about finishing fast so they could pick out these wonderful rocks.
The other thing that was quite funny about this trip was the lady that worked there was very strict. Even the adults were afraid of stepping out of line. The very beginning of her talk she told everyone that she never smiled, because when she was a kid her mother said if she smiled that her face would stay that way. (Your face stuck smiling now wouldn't that be a tragedy). After she let them know that they werent supposed to step out of line, she relaxed and was actually kind of funny with the jokes she told. But I'll admit it I was scared of her.